In my "Album of the Week" sermon, I mentioned that as of this morning, I still didn't know what I wanted to focus on. The same is true of this "Film of the Week" sermon. I don't know why this particular film popped into my head less than an hour before I started writing this. But I thought, since nothing else was jumping out at me, that I should just roll with it. I'm sure I could come up with some reason as to why this film popped into my head, but it would just be a rationalization. And as I learned from this movie, rationalizations are more important than sex.
Anyway... rolling with it...
My first exposure to this week's film came, weirdly enough, through its soundtrack album. Like a lot of people I think that it was one of the greatest soundtracks of the 1980s--possibly of all time--filled with great songs from the 1960s. It may have even been my first real exposure to the music of Motown.
Michael (Jeff Goldblum): Harold, don't you have any other music? You know, from this century?
Harold (Kevin Kline): There is no other music. Not in my house.
Michael: There's been a lot of terrific music in the last ten years.
Harold: Like what?
When I was in high school, my dad knew a guy who could get him movies (VHS tapes in those days) cheap. Needless to say, our home movie library was pretty impressive. (I like to think mine still is.) This was one of my parents' favourites (probably why they had the soundtrack album). The week Dad got it, we all sat down to watch it. There were a number of jokes that my parents just assumed I wouldn't get because I was not of their generation, and I still take a lot of pride in the fact that they seriously underestimated me. The look on Mom's face when she realized I knew who "Huey and Bobby" were still makes me laugh. I wish I had a photo of that moment.
In spite of that, even though I liked it okay, the film didn't resonate with me like it did with them. I had to watch it again in college for a class I was taking on the history of the American family. Like my initial viewing, I enjoyed it, but it didn't speak to me like it did for Mom and Dad. If I had to guess, I would imagine that they would say that it was because I didn't grow up in the 1960s.
After they died, when I was in my mid-40s, I found their DVD of the movie and I watched it again. I realized that I didn't identify with the film in high school and college not because I hadn't grown up in the 1960s, but because I hadn't grown up. Watching it again, I found myself overcome with emotion at multiple points in the film. One of the most beautiful things about this movie--other than the tremendous script and the amazing cast--is the fact that even though it centers on a group of baby boomers, it's applicable to multiple generations.
The story involves a group of seven friends who had been close at college in the late 1960s. They've come together roughly fifteen years later for the funeral of an eighth friend who had recently taken his own life. The group decides to reunite for the weekend and reconnect. During those few days, they find themselves examining their lives since college and realizing how truly important they were to each other, then and now. As the tagline to the movie says, "In a cold world, you need your friends to keep you warm."
Directed and co-written by Lawrence Kasdan, the film starred Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, and JoBeth Williams. You can also see Kevin Costner's shin, wrist, and hairline--he was originally cast as their dead friend, but his scenes were cut from the final film and just those brief parts of him in the casket are all that remain. Released in 1983, the movie garnered three Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay (Kasdan and Barbara Benedek), and Best Supporting Actress (Close). It's with a profound urge to re-watch this film that this week I recommend The Big Chill.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock and roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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